A few other tidbits related to the device's battery are gaining some exposure, information which may help users plan how they use their iPads. First, a report from AnandTech addressing battery life has been gaining renewed interest for its revelation that users running a Verizon iPad in personal hotspot mode can see as much as 25 hours of battery life to provide connectivity for their other devices. That number has also been confirmed by The Verge.

While Verizon is including personal hotspot functionality in its iPad data plans at no extra charge, AT&T has yet to announced whether it will even support the feature at all, noting only that it is "working with Apple" on the issue.

Meanwhile, VR-Zone notes that the new iPad can draw as much as 2 amps of current when charging the battery from a nearly-depleted state, pushing the capacity of charging connections such as computer USB ports. Apple's supplied iPad power adapter provides for up to 2.1 amps of current from a wall outlet, and the company has long noted that this method offers the fastest charging on any iPad. Users can, however, still charge the device using the smaller 1-amp adapter included with an iPhone or by connecting the dock connector cable directly to a computer's USB port. VR-Zone notes:

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As you can see in the video below, the iPad in question only had seven percent battery life remaining and at this point it's sucking 1.98A. That's a lot of power and we were told by Gigabyte that they've seen it hitting just over 2A. That said, as you might've noticed from the picture above, this quickly drops once the iPad begins to charge, but considering a standard USB 2.0 port only delivers 500mA and even a USB 3.0 port will only deliver 900mA, you have to wonder how much Apple cares about PC owners.

The new iPad carries a 42.5 watt-hour battery, roughly 70% larger in capacity and size than the 25 watt-hour battery found in the iPad 2.

As you can see in the video below, the iPad in question only had seven percent battery life remaining and at this point it's sucking 1.98A. That's a lot of power and we were told by Gigabyte that they've seen it hitting just over 2A. That said, as you might've noticed from the picture above, this quickly drops once the iPad begins to charge, but considering a standard USB 2.0 port only delivers 500mA and even a USB 3.0 port will only deliver 900mA, you have to wonder how much Apple cares about PC owners.

That is absolutely ridiculous. Because a PC owner's USB port doesn't supply as much power as the included charger for the 3rd generation iPad, Apple is screwing over their PC owning customers?

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It's not like Apple can just go back and change the USB port specs. Obviously the iPad needs this amount of power to run their device, and they're not making it require so much power just to be jerks. That comment make absolutely no sense to me.

Seems like you should be pointing those out to me, VR-Zone, if you're trying to prove to me that this is something that devices with screens like this should be doing. I'm assuming it's a long list for you to make a comment like that. Would be nice of you to share.

considering a standard USB 2.0 port only delivers 500mA and even a USB 3.0 port will only deliver 900mA, you have to wonder how much Apple cares about PC owners.

Yeh Apple doesn't care about PC owners, they care about the user experience. The wall charger obviously provides the fastest juice so why not take advantage of that? USB was really only meant to provide power for low-usage devices.

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JUst plug the damn thing into a wall outlet. Good grief. Apple supplies one with it. Why not use it?

Exactly. Someone might have a case if Apple weren't providing one in the box.

"...but considering a standard USB 2.0 port only delivers 500mA and even a USB 3.0 port will only deliver 900mA, you have to wonder how much Apple cares about PC owners."

This is so true! Apple clearly should have hard-capped the charging power at 2.5W to somehow prove it cares about PC owners (?????)! Why didn't I see it before?

Apple ships a 10W (= 2A) charger with the iPad, and ever since iPad 1 has said that will charge it fastest (duh). There is nothing wrong with charging at lower current levels, except, obviously, you're charging slower.

The ignorance in all the recent iPad reporting has been mind-boggling. Until you realize that they probably all know better, it's just disparaging headlines about Apple brings the most traffic.

My ipad 1 would not charge from the USB ports on my 2011 Dell desktop at work. I applied that ASUS hack that increased the voltage and then it charged, but s l o w l y. This is not a new issue. I think that the Consumer reports testers were using an USB port when they ran their test; I can pretty much guarantee that my ipad one would not get any charge while playing infinity blade and charging from my Dell.

__________________“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” -- Upton Sinclair.

2 amps is a LOT of current. It only takes milliamps to kill a person. Of course the voltage would need to be higher, but still.. 2A.

A lot higher. Honestly I've no idea why people harp on about it takes milliamps to kill. Virtually everything you come across in life produces in excess of the 30mA that it apparently takes to kill you.

..."considering a standard USB 2.0 port only delivers 500mA and even a USB 3.0 port will only deliver 900mA, you have to wonder how much Apple cares about PC owners."

Oh golly gee, a single tear rolls down my cheek.

If we limited ourselves to using old standards to support new technology, we would still be using Windows.

USB 3.0 old technology? *lol* Really? That must be the reason, why Apple supports USB 3.0, in the next MBPs and MBAs. Yeah, that must be the reason! Not!?

And regarding Windows:
I can do much more on Windows, than on the Mac OS X platform. Windows is a very modern, stable OS. I know it sounds absurd for you, but i plan to buy a Windows-based workstation for video editing/encoding (perhaps a Mac Pro or HP (both with Windows 7 SP1)).